Environment Policy 2025: What have we heard on repeat this year?

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Joseph Lewis

Your five ‘most listened to’ policy messages of 2025

1. An old favourite: the need for systemic change

As environmental scientists, we often come back to systems. Systemic change is a crucial part of addressing environmental challenges, so it’s unsurprising to see that systems have been a common theme of policy conversations throughout 2025.

One of the biggest developments in environmental policy this year was the progress of the Independent Water Commission, the Cunliffe Review. Early in the year, the Commission was making calls for a more systemic approach to water in England and Wales. While its final report was less ambitious, the call for a systems approach remains. If that vision is going to be realised, the Government will need to act on the Commission’s recommendations through its Water White Paper, which is still due in the final weeks of the year, or early 2026.

The Government has already taken some steps towards reforming the water environment, including the Water (Special Measures) Act and the National Framework for Water Resources 2025, though we need to go further to deliver meaningful change.

You can read back through each of the stages on the journey towards a systemic approach to water in our articles on the Cunliffe Review, its interim analysis, and the final report of the Independent Water Commission.

Beyond the UK, calls for a systemic approach weren’t just limited to water: the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (IPBES) Transformative Change and Nexus Assessments were published at the start of the year after they were agreed in December 2024. The reports make clear that we need a systemic approach to change.

To learn more about the latest IPBES reports ahead of IPBES-12 Manchester in February 2026, read the analysis on the reports from IES members Gary Kass and Tom Raven.

2. Singing the wrong lyrics: a false narrative of ‘nature vs economics’

For the environment sector, government policy this year has often sounded out of tune.

On one hand, the Government says it hopes to “create a future where nature flourishes, communities thrive, and our children inherit not the environmental challenges we faced, but the solutions we delivered.” On the other, the Prime Minister attacks the environment as a blocker to development and the Government continues to argue that nature is blocking economic growth.

These mixed messages are more than confusing: they have led policy down the wrong path. This year, the Planning & Infrastructure Bill has presented a significant threat to both nature and the mitigation hierarchy. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) on small sites has been subject to doubt following a government consultation earlier in the year.

To learn more about how the IES is fighting for a better message on nature and planning, you can read our updated message to government with a new chapter on changing the narrative on nature to reflect its value. We also responded to the consultation on Biodiversity Net Gain and published research at the start of the year on the implementation of BNG.

There are two challenges for the coming months. First, we need to push back on this false message, showing that nature has immense value and that a better approach to environmental assessments would enhance, and not block, development. Second, we need to ensure that the mixed messages do not undermine any other critical policies, such as the forthcoming Land Use Framework.

2025 saw considerable uncertainty around the future of land management and nature-friendly farming, alongside the publication of the Land Use Consultation and a new Food Strategy. 2026 needs to return us to a clear and coherent message that provides greater certainty around the future of land use and food security.

Our briefing on the Land Use Framework has all the details on this year’s developments around land use. You can find out more in our interdisciplinary response to the Land Use Consultation.

3. Guilty pleasures: environmental governance and strategies

This has been a big year for environmental governance and strategies. A long list of policies and papers have been published over the course of 2025, including:

The revised Environmental Improvement Plan for England (EIP)
A UK National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
Ongoing legislation and a white paper on governance in Wales
New strategies from the Environment Agency and Natural England
More reports from the Office for Environmental Protection, along with responses from government

Governance plays an important role in driving environmental outcomes, as long as it has a purpose and as long as it works in practice. Although many years have been focused on new governance arrangements since the UK’s exit from the EU, the new rules and strategies have an important role to play. They may not be the most exciting policies, but if they can help to embed environmental protections across the UK, they will always be worthwhile.

Find out more about some of these crucial developments as they happened by reading through this year’s insights articles in Essential Environment.

4. Quietly playing in the background: getting on with delivery

While there is still an enormous implementation gap when it comes to delivering environmental policy in practice, a lot has happened in the implementation space over the course of 2025. Several critical areas of policy are quietly working away in the background, delivering on existing policy to drive outcomes in practice.

The UK energy decarbonisation agenda has seen steady progress, despite limited new ambition from the Government at COP30 and increased challenges to reaching net zero emissions. As the Climate Change Committee’s report highlighted, there is still a long way to go but meaningful progress is being made. The Industrial Strategy and the revised Carbon Budget (and Growth) Delivery Plan both help to strengthen delivery plans, as well as the evidence underpinning pathways for action.

Meanwhile, policies such as digital waste tracking and ‘simpler recycling’ have seen slow progress and difficult implementations. Looking ahead to 2026, there's a clear lesson to learn: design policies with implementation in mind.

Over the next year, our Environmental Policy Implementation Community (EPIC) will be continuing to support the effective delivery of ambitious environmental policy. You can also find out more about progress on energy and climate change during 2025 in our article on the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan and our analysis on COP30.

5. Who’s the lead singer? Can we rely on governments to lead on the environment?

One of the biggest environmental moments of the year was COP30 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Or at least, it should have been.

COP30 did not move the needle much on climate change but neither did it lead to substantial regression. In the face of changing politics, COP30 kept us on the right path— but it made no further progress along that path.

The message is becoming clear: environmental leadership isn’t coming from politics or governments anymore. Leadership now is coming from the local level and from professionals working ‘in the roots’ of delivering in practice.

2025 has seen several demonstrations of weak environmental leadership in the policy sphere: beyond COP30, the US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, a government reshuffle in the UK did little to fix the Government’s poor relationship with nature, and the Corry Review made proposals to amend environmental regulation that have not yet been fully addressed. Progress has been slow, even where it has been beneficial.

The benefit of this vacuum of leadership is the spotlight that 2025 has put on communities, opening the door to local leadership. While the Devolution Bill poses risks for environmental delivery, particularly if it becomes an excuse to effectively cut environmental budgets, it also has the potential to create a better system of innovation and leadership at the community level. Where COP30 failed to call out the pervasive role of fossil fuels, the concept of Mutirão COP30 is inherently more community-led, inviting a new generation of climate action.

2026 will be the first year that really tests those opportunities. Even in the face of attempts to undermine the benefits of environmental progress, it is still possible to take meaningful steps towards action.

Our message to COP30 sets out an approach to delivering change in a complex world. Over the coming months, our Climate Action Community and Environmental Policy Implementation Community will be working together to help environmental experts create a world with thriving people, a healthy economy, and a flourishing environment.

Implications: what will we be hearing from policy in 2026?

The policy landscape is still uncertain. You can predict what might happen by improving your understanding of policy with our environmental policy training. For now, keep an eye out for these major developments, expected in the final weeks of 2025 or early 2026:

IPBES-12 in Manchester: The 12th plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services will be taking place in the UK early in 2026, setting out a new assessment on business and biodiversity.
Missing policy papers: By the end of 2025, we are expecting several crucial policy papers to be published, including the Land Use Framework, the Water White Paper, a response to the consultation on Biodiversity Net Gain for small sites, and the Circular Economy Strategy. If we don’t hear more in 2025, expect the publications to come early in 2026, alongside the latest report on environmental progress from the Office for Environmental Protection.
Carbon Budget Seven: In the middle of 2026, the UK’s 7th Carbon Budget is due to be officially released, setting out the next wave of commitments that will take the UK from 2038 to 2042, requiring another substantial increase in ambition and delivery to keep the country’s climate commitments on track.
Political uncertainty: Elections are due across the UK in May 2026, including elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd. The outcome of those polls may lead to significant shifts in environmental policy, as well as wider uncertainty in the policy space, particularly if it further reduces confidence in the current government.

How is the IES responding?

As we prepare our policy activities for 2026, the IES is focusing on a handful of key themes:

Complexity: As uncertainty and complexity become rampant themes in the environmental policy space, the IES is taking on the challenge of delivering change in a complex world. If we want to deliver real change, we need to be willing to grapple with complexity now to make the future simpler.
Value: In the context of attempts to undermine environmental action, we will be working to emphasise the value of nature and set out a fair, sensible way forward to create a country and world with thriving people, a healthy economy, and a flourishing environment.
Training: Throughout 2026, we will be speaking up for the voice of environmental experts. Our work with policy makers focuses on uniting science and people to resolve environmental challenges. We also support the environmental profession to become knowledgeable, skilled, diverse, trusted, and engaged in the transformation to a sustainable society.

Keep ahead of the curve: For the last year, the IES has delivered Essential Environment as a free and open access resource. Starting in 2026, we will be reserving some of our analysis as an exclusive benefit for professional IES members, including our insights pieces which discuss the implications of policy developments for environmental professionals.

If you still want to receive the latest insights to keep ahead of the competition, or to support the our work as we stand up for science and the environment, join the IES.

Find out more about the Environmental Policy Implementation Community (EPIC) and how you can join the IES to keep access to Essential Environment
Learn how to engage with environmental policy through our collection of case studies and briefing series on core policy skills for environmental professionals
Express interest in our forthcoming environmental policy training workshops
Read more articles from Essential Environment to stay ahead of policy developments across the environment

If you want to find out more about environmental policy or the training we offer for members, please contact Joseph Lewis, Head of Policy (joseph@the-ies.org), or our expert in environmental policy implementation, Ellie Savage (ellie@the-ies.org).

Bibliography and further information

Independent Water Commission: review of the water sector | GOV.UK
IPBES Nexus Assessment | IPBES
IPBES Transformative Change Assessment | IPBES
Water Commission: What next? | Essential Environment
IPBES Nexus and Transformative Change Assessments | Gary Kass & Tom Raven
Planning & Infrastructure Bill | Houses of Parliament
Land Use Framework for England | The IES
Our Shared Mission for Sustainable Wellbeing | The IES
Environmental Improvement Plan for England 2025 | GOV.UK
UK National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan | GOV.UK
Environment (Principles Governance and Biodiversity Targets) (Wales) Bill | Gov.Wales
Ghosted by Government? Government responses to the OEP reports | The IES
Mutirão COP30 | COP30 Presidency
Environmental Policy Implementation Community | EPIC
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill | Houses of Parliament
An independent review of Defra’s regulatory landscape | GOV.UK
Delivering change in a complex world | The IES